1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for packaging and preserving sterilized products under vacuum in plastic packs, in particular linen, in an autoclave, comprising at least one support-rack, a plurality of parallel bars supported by said support-rack, a plurality of packs in the form of air-impervious plastic bags open at one end, means for supporting said packs in said support-rack in such a manner that the open end of each pack extends between two adjacent bars of said plurality of parallel bars, and members fixed to said parallel bars for compressing and sealing the open ends of the packs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A device of the type defined above is disclosed for example in applicant's U.S. Pat. No., 3,925,961. With the known device described in this patent, when the products have been sterilized and conditioned under vacuum in plastic bags in the autoclave and the support-rack has been extracted from the autoclave, it is necessary to wait 15 to 20 minutes before the plastic bags containing the sterilized products can be handled. In fact, when the support-rack is withdrawn from the autoclave, the plastic bags are still at a relatively high temperature. At this temperature, the plastics material constituting the bags is rather brittle and therefore the bags cannot be handled before they have resumed the room temperature, otherwise they might break and this would destroy the vacuum created within the bags. Therefore, the support-rack must be kept still during a time period corresponding to about 30 percent of the total sterilization and conditioning cycle. In order to reduce the total time corresponding to said cycle, one could utilize alternatively two support-racks, one support-rack being loaded with plastic bags containing the products to be sterilized, while the other rack is being processed within the autoclave, said one rack being introduced into the autoclave immediately after the other rack has been removed therefrom. However, the support-racks are relatively expensive items and since the autoclave is capable in general to hold at least two support-racks simultaneoully, it would be necessary to provide at least another pair of such support-racks, so that the cost of the sterilization and conditioning plant would be increased considerably.
In addition, the support-racks described in the above-mentioned U.S. patent comprises a relatively great number of movable component elements exposed to the action of heat and water vapour in the autoclave. More particularly, the bars supporting the compressing and sealing members are not rigidly secured to the support-rack structure but are provided with rollers at their ends, which can roll on rails along the upper longitudinal edges of said rack, so that the bars and associated compressing and sealing member can be moved away from one another to permit the introduction and the removal of the plastic bags into and from adequate baskets supported by the bars. Said bars are themselves interconnected by means of linkage means comprising scissor-type members. Considering the severe conditions to which these component elements are subjected within the autoclave, considerable and therefore expensive maintenance is necessary for the support-rack.
Finally, the plastic bags containing the products to be sterilized are supported in a vertical position in the baskets of the support-rack. As a result, the bags and the products contained therein tend to collapse by gravity and to assume very irregular shapes instead of preserving a substantially flat configuration. This bag deformation is detrimental to the appearance of the final product, and since the bags containing the product under vacuum are relatively rigid, it is difficult to stack them properly for storage purposes.